I also tried THIS recipe for a pastry cream. I'm not sure if I did something wrong, because honestly it was a lots of work for basically just pudding. I ended up mixing it with whipping cream. It was delicious but not what I was looking for.

We still stuck a few candles on top and sang our traditional version of "Happy Birthday."

Perfect timing. My husband does not like cake either, but he does love strawberry shortcake. That would be fun to mix it up a bit by making cream puffs with strawberries! (Plus I looooove cream puffs.)Maybe I will try to find out what they put in those Brooklyn pastry shop ones... I think it's marscapone based.